Berlin-Brandenburg Transportation: A decision table for weighing options on travel
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1. Background
Berlin is the capital of Germany with a population of approximately 3.4 million people according to statistics from Berlin Statistical office, 2008. It is the second most densely populated city among Europe. Due to growing number of people visiting Berlin both as local and international tourists, Berlin has developed a highly complex transportation infrastructure to meet up the demand of 5 million people altogether.
2. Transportation Infrastructure
The fare area is managed by (VBB), the Transportation Association Berlin-Brandenburg which facilitates the ease access of the city via Suburban (express) train(B), Suburban railways (S), Subway (U), Tramway, BUS and Long Distance Train. Berlin has 5,334 kilometers (3,314 mi) of roads run through Berlin, of which 73 kilometers (45 mi) are motorways. According to a statistics in the year 2006, Berlin has 1.416 million motor vehicles that were registered in the city with 358 cars per 1000 inhabitants in 2008 (570/1000 in Germany) so there is a growing number of people using public transport system.
3. Introduction
We are going to develop a decision table for Berlin transport system by analyzing a decision situation that a citizen chooses for a particular type of ticket for transportation to different zone with in Berlin-Brandenburg territory. The fare area in Berlin is divided into several zones A, B, and C. However, tickets are available for only the combined zones AB, BC and ABC, depending on choices of destinations requirements. With a ticket for zones AB travelers are always right within Berlin.
4. Significance of the study
This decision table would enable us to determine how citizens evaluate between their choices of tickets and choose the best possible ticket for particular destination with given price for different zone. Here, it is also should be noted that since the three Zone choices A,B,C and C are not separately distinguishable so zone selection is always an important factor considering the price attached to it. For instance, the difference between the Zone prices for adult is 40 and 30 cents for AB to BC and BC to ABC in case of Single Journey ticket.
5. Methodology
We are running the Decision table for choosing a particular type of ticket for different zones on Prologa Software. In the software we define the conditions, possible actions and set of rules to run . A decision table is a tabular representation used to describe and analyze decision situations, where the state of a number of conditions determines the execution of a set of actions. Not just any representation, however, but one in which all distinct situations are shown as columns in a table, such that every possible case is included in one and only one column (completeness and exclusivity),(p,4., Vanthienen. J)

Lets now explain in details the possible Ticket Options between different zone with prices affecting Adult and Children:

Catagorie
Description
Price ( in Euros)
Single Journey Ticket AB

Zone covering Berlin's inner city up to and including the S-Bahn ring plus outside the S-Bahn ring up to the city boundary .


€ 2.10

Single Journey Ticket BC

Zone covering outside the S-Bahn ring up to the city boundary plus Greater Berlin (area approx. 15 km around Land Berlin), including the City of Potsdam


€ 2.50

Single Journey Ticket ABC

Zone covering Berlin's inner city up to and including the S-Bahn ring plus outside the S-Bahn ring up to the city boundary. In addition Greater Berlin (area approx. 15 km around Land Berlin), including the City of Potsdam.


€ 2.80

6 < age < 14

Children age 6 and 14

AB= € 1.40
BC=
€ 1.70
ABC=
€2.00

age >14

Adult more than age 14

AB= €2.10
BC=€2.50
ABC=€2.00


Note: The Single Journey seems to design for people who travel by public transport only occasionally. Single Tickets entitle one to travel with any number of changes in the direction of the destination via the usual travel route or the route determined by the timetable situation. They are valid for a maximum of 2 hours.


6. Decision table results

Transport Ticket Choices
1. Single Journey AB
Y
N
2. Single Journey BC
Y
N
Y
N
3. Single Journey ABC
-
Y
N
Y
N
Y
N
4. 6 < age < 14
-
-
Y
N
-
Y
N
Y
N
-
5. age > 14
-
-
Y
N
Y
N
-
Y
N
Y
N
Y
N
Y
N
-
1. Price=2.10
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x
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2. Price=2.50
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x
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3. Price=2.80
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x
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4. Price=1.40
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x
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5. Price=1.70
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x
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6. Price=2.00
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7.Consultation:

8. References:
1.http://www.vbbonline.de/index.php?cat=2&sCat=394&id_language=2**
2. http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/17102/name/Tickets+%26+Fares.html
3. http://www.statistik-berlin.de/